Idaho legislators are considering a bill that would require cities with more than 25,000 residents to run local elections by district rather than at-large.
Senate Bill 1075 follows the policy path that has been vigorously pursued by the ACLU in Washington state and other states.
Currently, any city with more than 100,000 residents in Idaho elects council members by district. But cities with fewer use an at-large process.
Simply put, the entire population of these smaller cities can vote for every council member, whereas in larger cities, citizens are limited to voting for only council members in the district in which they live.
While district elections can help cities have members who highlight issues from specific neighborhoods, there are drawbacks. For example, the smaller a city, the smaller a district, and the smaller the number of votes needed to become elected.
For example, in a city with 25,000 residents, assuming half are registered to vote and there is 50% voter turnout, an at-large election would require a candidate to receive more than 3,000 votes. Whereas a district election could see a candidate elected with fewer than 1,000. A majority block could be elected with just 3,568 votes - or a quarter of the city's total registered voters.
Type of election | Total number of citizens | Total registered to vote | Voter turnout | Voters in each of seven districts | Votes needed to win | Total votes needed to secure majority (4/7) |
At large | 25,000 | 12,500 | 50% | NA | 3,125 | 12,500 |
District | 25,000 | 12,500 | 50% | 1,785 | 892 | 3,568 |
Larger cities that have kept at-large elections have often been sued for allegedly violating the rights of minorities, who can be outvoted in a city-wide election versus a district election.
Senate Bill 1075 has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing. When it does, it will be important to determine whether there is a specific policy challenge the legislation is seeking to address, or whether it is an answer in search of a problem.